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It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine

It's Psychedelic Baby is an independent, music magazine. We are covering alternative, underground, non-commercial and non-mainstream artists in variety of shapes and genres. Exclusive interviews, reviews and articles. A place where musicians can express themselves. We serve an international readership.

In 1970 one of the best, if not the best, heavy psychedelic rock albums of all time was released on Mainstream Records. The album Drive It! was the product of the band Lincoln St. Exit, featuring Michael Martinez on lead guitar and lead vocals as well as being the band’s chief songwriter. Recently, Martinez was kind enough to share the saga of Lincoln St. Exit with “It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine” readers.

Witchthroat Serpent so far released two albums. Latest being Sang-Dragon. What’s the story behind it?

Well, nice question. Sang-Dragon was a name we came up with in Barcelona where we were waiting to play our worst gig ever. At this moment we talking on the terrace of a bar near the Mediterranean Sea, drinking the most expensive beer we’d ever bought (no beer was provided by the concert promoter) and the idea to name our new album after the incense we use on stage appeared to us as obvious. Sang-Dragon incense is a really special resin, surrounded by mysticism and magic, so we always like to use it during our shows with a special mix of herbs... Red Dragon needs company to be well-catalyzed.

Most bands I interview make it easy, but not Blair 1523, I got a call shortly before the interview saying that not only that the location had changed, but that I would be meeting only with George Harris, to which I said, “Hey, that’s fine with me, as long as I can cut through the mystery that’s been surrounding the band for so long.” The space we met at was clean and quiet, George was sitting alone in the back, all smiles, certainly not what I’d expect, yet a pleasure to meet.

The newest reissue from Roger Maglio’s Gear Fab Records features a New York band, Majic Ship, whose first life spanned the years 1966-1970. The Complete Authorized Recordings contains exactly that, both sides of the band’s four singles, their sole s/t LP, a tune recorded in 1997, and as icing on the cake, a new interview with members of the band, making this truly a complete collection.

We are extremely proud that we’re sponsoring Avantgarde Festival - the legendary gathering of experimental music and performing arts brought to life by Jean-Hervé Peron (Faust) and Carina Varain in 1996. Year after year, around summer solstice, people from all over the world travel to Schiphorst, a small village in the North of Germany to celebrate art & life; Three Days of Utopia (Chris Cutler).

Full Moon Fiasco underline Berlin’s reputation as melting pot of the contemporary international music scene: The band unites musicians from New Zealand, South Africa, Germany and Croatia. Modern psychedelic sound with the accustomed twist of the post cold war Berlin experience.

The quartet is built around the charismatic singer and songwriter Will Rattray. Summer Eyes album coming soon.

“Thinking, talking and listening is more beneficial than hours spent in a practice room”

Adam Cadell is an Australian fiddle player, writer and educator with a bristling mistrust of all established norms and a desire to kick against any oppression, resulting in questioning the whole Europian notion of the “avant-garde” that puts newness above quality and tradition.

Multi-instrumentalist Eric Johnson has spearheaded Tucson, Arizona-based SlowBurn Records for three decades, and the label celebrates its 30th anniversary with the third and final release from Number Three Combo. Sadly, it also represents SlowBurn’s final release of original material, although Johnson promises to release archival material from label favourites like Black Sun Ensemble, Sun Zoom Spark, and many others. So fans of the label will have many new and interesting releases to anticipate, but we’ll take a few moments to rejoice and sing the praises of another fine musical biscuit from this heady quartet.

During their original lifespan, 1974 to 1978, the Doctors Of Madness defied definition as a band as well as the norms of the music industry. Only in retrospect were Richard Strange and his bandmates credited as being “new wave before people were punk” and by logical extension were, therefore, punk before there was punk! RPM Records has collected the band’s complete musical legacy, three LPs and a lone single, supplemented by thirteen previously unreleased tracks in Perfect Past a soon to be released three CD career retrospective box set..

With Vesiä, 29 year old Finnish artist and musician Olli Aarni made a triple tape box set with recordings of water.

What does Vesiä mean?

Vesiä means Waters in Finnish. I wanted to keep it really simple and self-explanatory. I almost always use the Finnish language on the titles of my work, because I’m bored of English most often being the lingua franca for art.

The slacker rockers burst into life in the early months of 2016, born from the member’s shared enthusiasm of relentlessly fuzzed-out guitar riffs juxtaposed with melancholic ambiences.

WUZI spent 2016 playing shows all around the country and ended the year headlining Indie Week Festival in Toronto. Despite the short time they have been around, their explosive sets have grabbed the attention of a growing army of fans and music scene stalwarts.

New song “DD” is a follow up to their first single “Atomis”, and the start of a steady stream of singles to be released in 2017.

London based singer- songwriter follows the smoke trails left by his early 70s acid folk heroes. This is dark existential acid folk at its most meditative and transcendental. Songs of death, imprisonment, mutation, and powerlessness are presented amongst lush finger picked melodies, lysergic mellotron swirls and haunted Teutonic synths.

What do you consider to be your first real exposure to music?

My parents were still listening to stuff like Pink Floyd, Hendrix, Cream, Rory Gallagher, Deep Purple when I was an infant in the 70s. One of my earliest recollections as a kid was listening to Meddle in a smoky room and the whale part in “Echoes” giving me the creeps; I still find that bit slightly terrifying. But my parents were really young so from day one I’ve been exposed to this music, which I’m really grateful for. Haven’t moved on a bit really.

Moteur! plays improvised psychedelic music, and was created in 2017 in Montpellier (France) by Léo Minart (guitar), Jude Mas (keyboards), and Guillaume Jankowski (drums). Moteur!’s music is improvised, recorded and overdubbed in the band’s studio, “L’espace ou le poulet”, also the main control room of their associative label Bermuda Cruise, which is releasing this first self-titled album.

Overcoming any stylistical or temporal border, Moteur! is developing a new music freely inspired by imagination, mystical practices and sonic experimentations. Inheriting from the spirit of rock in opposition, zeuhl and krautrock, the band’s music is original and unique, based on improvisation and openness, and far away from today’s commercial standards and formatting.

Deep Space Destructors are psychedelic space rock band from Finland, founded in the beginning of 2011 in Oulu. They released several albums, latest being Psychedelogy. Their journey continues towards deeper space and sounds.

If you’re a fan of The Supremes, The Shanrgi-Las, The Ronettes, etc. there’s nothing wrong with digging on your favorite 1960s girl group artists over and over. But if you have a yearning to dig deeper into this corner of pop and soul music history, there’s plenty of lesser-named yet fully pleasurable acts to discover. Sheila Burgel, the crate-digging catalyst behind the One Kiss Can Lead to Another and Nippon Girls compilations of under-heard feminine musical gems, has now put together this collection of 19 little-known treasures done by female-fronted acts from the 60s. The compilation will more than please those lovers of girl group sounds who want more than what can be heard on oldies radio.

As word continues to spread around Montreal’s Elephant Stone and their captivating live performances, fans have been treated with the opportunity to enjoy this whimsical display from the comfort of their own home with their Live EP Live At The Verge out now.

Oddly enough, The Vacant Lots have an EP entitled “Arrival” and the single entitled “Departure,” though neither of these neo-psychedelic classics finds their way onto the album Departure. The songs “Arrival” and “Departure” also do not show up on the compilation album Arrival.

Asking a dear friend what he found most compelling about Stereolab, his favorite band, he replied, “They manage to aggregate all of the favorite things I find in underground and pop music, they are totally modern, yet retro in their relentless use of elements both in music, and with musical instruments.” I must say that I couldn’t agree more, so with that in mind, I’m beginning at the beginning with my first Stereolab review … Peng!.

It’s funky and psychedelic in best possible way. Here Lies Man self titled album is one of the most refreshing releases from 2017. I was absolutely amazed when I heard their album. Here’s our interview with Marcos Garcia. He is well known for being part of Antibalas, the Afrobeat collective. Here Lies Man released an album on Riding Easy Records and are currently in the studio working on their next.

Vernon Joynson’s incredible book “Dreams, Fantasies and Nightmares Revisited” has grown so large that it is being divided into two new titles. The first, “A Melange of Musical Pipedreams and Pandemonium” will survey psych, prog, beat and folk music 1963-1976 in Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Turkey and The Middle East, and is limited to 850 numbered copies worldwide. The 768 page volume has an additional 12 page full color section of album art work! In the US copies can be ordered from VVMO, the mail order division of Vintage Vinyl at: www.vvmo.com. In the UK, from www.spincds.com or Amazon.co.uk. In the Netherlands, www.shinybeast.nl or www.clear-spot.nl. Release date is set for 18 May, 2017, so pre-order your copy now. Other sellers will be listed as they become available. The second volume which will survey Canada and Latin America will hopefully be available for the holidays.- Kevin Rathert

Br’lâa B’s Molochville is a crude 22 minute collage tape, released on the German Ana Ott label.

How did you make this tape? Did you dig into your own archive of used and unused recordings, and mix this with other recordings (old vinyl and VHS tape material)? And in this sense, is this kind of a mix tape, a collage record?

All Br’lâa B tunes are a combination of my own recordings and found sounds. Montage is what it’s all about. Montage means to look for a sort of narrative drive. And everything is up for use, if it fits – it can be a strange wobble on an old VHS that I find attractive for a background sound of a tune I already have, it can be Lenny Bruce on vinyl saying “4 in the mornin’,” a feedback tone, anything.

It is 1966, Jeff Beck has just announced he is leaving the legendary British blues rockers, the Yardbirds. In turn, the job is offered to a noted American guitarist who is faced with a choice of either joining the Yardbirds or the American psychedelic garage band, The Other Half. In the end, Randy Holden chose the latter, leaving the band soon after the recording of their sole, s/t 1966 LP. He did, however, leave a sizzling solo behind on the non-LP single track “Mr. Pharmacist” immortalized by its inclusion on the 1998 Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968 box set. After recording one side, three Holden originals, of Blue Cheer’s 1969 LP New! Improved!, the classic “Fruit & Iceburgs” among the three Holden compositions, he toured for a year with the band before deciding it was time to realize his musical vision, which would culminate in the sonic extravaganza Population II an album that, despite its brilliance, cost Holden dearly, resulting in him leaving the music industry for more than two decades, twenty eight years passing before his next release, 1997’s Guitar God.

There was a time, back in the Cloudgrounds, when the demons came in rainbows of colours, unrequested, and unencumbered ... gelatin capsules galore, mixing and melting among Crayola crayons in the sun baked heat across the rear window deck, my personal office, and grandma’s yellow ’53 Pontiac. Grams never drove, didn’t have a license or a receipt, but we got places high and low without turning a key, she with her blue cloud Paregoric cigarettes, her zipping lighter, and that blinding silver clamshell case of pre-rolls.

Two of the tightest bands that exist in my world are The Beach Boys, though their music sounded so flawless and tight because the Wrecking Crew was actually playing the music, and Steely Dan, who were equal sonic geniuses, a band of unprecedented caliber. Then the Explorers Club filtered into my life, laced with harmonic and musical interpretations that are simply flowing and effortlessly intoxicating.

The lush psych-pop sound of Copenhagen’s Halasan Bazar returns with their ambitious third album, “Burns”. After numerous shows, recording sessions, a powerful collaboration LP and tours, “Burns” finds the band even more seasoned and impressive, giving the record a breezy naturalism from these gurus of their psychedelic craft.

Phat Bollard is a nomadic busking band from Cornwall, England. Along with their families and dogs, they travel the U.K. in their lorries (vans) and make a living performing for the public. Everyone sings, including the dogs.

After only a handful of gigs, Eastern-influenced UK psychedelic rock band, Quintessence received two recording contract offers. In the end, the band rejected Ian Samwell’s offer from Reprise Records (despite it being more lucrative) in favor of one from Chris Blackwell of Island Records, the decision based on the amount of artistic control granted to the band. The agreement resulted in the three LPs and one single that comprise Move into the Light.

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Psychedelic Folk issue available

Dedicated to British psychedelic folk. New issue of printed version projected from the well-known, leading psych on-line site It’s Psychedelic Baby. After the previous issue covering exclusively the US psychedelic folk scene (IPB 002, 2016), this new issue covers the 1960s and 1970s British folk scene, with exclusive interviews of members from acts such as Fresh Maggots, Comus, Mellow Candle, Dr Strangely Strange, Spirogyra, C.O.B., Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, Pererin, Courtyard Music Group, Magic Carpet, Sunforest, Oberon, etc. Also includes a few pages of record reviews. Cover by Justin Jackley.